Nike To Improve Asian Working Conditions

In response to protests made by women's rights, human rights, and labor organizations, Nike has announced a plan to improve working conditions in its Asian factories, including minimizing toxic fumes and instituting independent monitoring of factories.

However, Nike did not announce any increase in the wages workers are paid, nor did the company address the fact that workers at its Asian factories are not allowed to organize into unions.

Global Exchange, a U.S. nonprofit which organized women's groups to protest Nike's ill-treatment of its mostly female workforce, says the announcement is "a first step toward improving labor conditions." Global Exchange has been encouraging Nike to pay its workers a wage of $3 per day, which would cover basic necessities such as food and housing. Nike currently pays workers between $1 and $1.60 per day in its factories in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Workers, many of them teenaged girls, are forced to work excessive amounts of overtime in order to cover their expenses.

For more information see the Global Exchange web site: http://www.globalexchange.org.

Senegalese Villages Ban FGM

Senegalese women and men in twenty-nine villages have banned the practice of female genital mutilation as of June 1998. By getting whole villages ban the practice, no one is stigmatized for not undergoing the procedure. The villagers' actions prompted Senegalese president Abdou Diouf to push for making FGM a crime punishable by six years in jail.

Other African governments have banned FGM, including Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Egypt. A women's group in Kenya has created a ritual involving seclusion and education to replace FGM. Doctors in the U.S. say the practice is increasing here as more African immigrants move to the U.S. Congress outlawed FGM last fall.

Female genital mutilation involves removing part or all of a girl's genitalia, often using crude instruments and no anesthesia. FGM can lead to shock, hemorrhage, infection, urinary incontinence, painful sexual intercourse, infertility, and childbirth complications.

Elect a Woman to the White House

This November, voters will have a chance to select a woman presidential candidate. The White House Project, started by Ms. Foundation president Marie Wilson, seeks to build the political climate necessary to elect a woman president by the year 2008. The project will publicize the names of twenty accomplished women. Voters will have a chance to select their top five presidential candidates on election day by participating in Ballot Box at schools, in national magazines, and on the Internet. The White House Project will then campaign for the five candidates, hoping to place them in leadership positions in the 2000 presidential campaign.

The White House Project is inspired by polling data indicating that 75 percent of American voters are willing to elect a "qualified woman" to the office of president. For more information on the White House Project, contact the Ms. Foundation at (212) 742-2300.